Tag: The Working Songwriter

The Working Songwriter: David Shaw of The Revivalists

Posted on by Cindy Howes

Our guest this week is David Shaw, the lead singer and principal songwriter of the rock band The Revivalists.

Originally hailing from Hamilton, Ohio, Shaw moved south to New Orleans after college graduation. A chance encounter with guitarist Zack Feinberg helped launch The Revivalists in 2007. After years of relentless touring, the band broke through nationally with 2015’s Men Amongst Mountains and the single “Wish I Knew You,” which went to number one at alternative radio and has since been certified triple platinum. The band has since amassed more than 1.6 billion streams worldwide.

Along the way, The Revivalists have opened for The Rolling Stones, The Black Crowes, and Dr. John. They’ve appeared at Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, the New Orleans Jazz Fest. They’ve also performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Austin City Limits.

“Wish I Knew You” earned an iHeartRadio Music Award nomination for Alternative Rock Song of the Year, while the band was nominated for Best New Rock/Alternative Rock Artist. Rolling Stone described their sound as “a Crescent City-rhythm spin on jam-band jubilee,” and Billboard has called them “a compelling blend of musical ingenuity and heart.”

I got a chance to catch up with David a few weeks ago to hear about his musical journey so far.

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Photo Credit: Alysse Gafkjen

The Working Songwriter: Erin McAnally

Posted on by Cindy Howes

Our guest this week is Erin McAnally. Born in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and raised in Nashville, Erin grew up surrounded by the music business as the daughter of legendary songwriter and guitarist Mac McAnally. Over the years, she has worked in A&R, music publishing, and film and television scoring.

Alongside her husband and frequent collaborator Mick Utley, she co-wrote songs with Jimmy Buffett, including “Audience of One” and “Nobody Works on Friday,” both of which appeared on Buffett’s final album, Equal Strain on All Parts, released posthumously in 2023. She is also a founding member of Floating Collective, a musical project with Utley and Brendan Mayer, all three of whom are children of members of Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band. The group released its debut album in 2024.

Today, Erin serves as Executive Director of Songwriters of North America, advocating for the rights of working songwriters. Her work has taken her to SXSW, Americanafest, and Folk Alliance.

I got a chance to catch up with Erin McAnally to hear about her musical journey so far.

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Photo Credit: Erin McAnally

The Working Songwriter: John Moreland (Live Episode)

Posted on by Cindy Howes

Recorded live at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago at the Working Songwriter Forum, our guest is beloved songwriter John Moreland. TWS Forum is an annual event that the podcast hosts in June. Listeners take in concerts by the headlining artists and then attend workshops from them during the day. This was the second annual event. The headliners and dates for next year’s Forum will be announced this month.

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Photo Credit: John Moreland

The Working Songwriter: Jim James

Posted on by Editor

Our guest this week is one of Louisville, Kentucky’s favorite sons. Jim James is a native Kentuckian who rose to prominence as the vocalist and creative force behind the celebrated rock group My Morning Jacket.

“The Jacket,” as they are affectionately called by their fans, released their debut album The Tennessee Fire in 1999 and took the country by storm with their legendary live show. Since then they’ve released a slew of critically acclaimed albums, including 2008’s Evil Urges and 2011’s Circuital, which both charted in the Top 10 on the Billboard 200.

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The group has recorded for Capitol, RCA, ATO, and V2, and toured with Bob Dylan, Wilco, Guided by Voices, and the Foo Fighters. In addition, the hard-charging band has appeared at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Coachella, Newport Folk Festival, New Orleans Jazz Fest, Austin City Limits Music Festival, Glastonbury, the Bridge School Benefit, and pretty much any festival of note.

They’ve also been frequent guests on late-night TV including Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night With Conan O’Brien, and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. In more recent years, Jim has been part of the group Monsters of Folk, along with M. Ward, Conor Oberst, and Mike Mogis, and he’s also released a string of solo albums including this year’s title, Wowed Out.

Pitchfork has called the Jacket’s sound “huge, ghostly, terrifying rock ‘n’ roll.” The Guardian has dubbed the band’s output as “seven albums of resplendent melodies.” And NPR has said that his music has “the sound of a lost soul in search of something bigger than himself.”

I got a chance to catch up with Jim a few weeks ago to hear about his musical journey so far.

Photo Credit: Danny Clinch

The Working Songwriter: Gary Louris

Posted on by Editor

Our guest this week is one of the godfathers of modern roots and Americana music. Originally from Toledo, Ohio, Gary Louris moved to Minneapolis as a young man in the 1970s and immersed himself in a Twin Cities music scene that punched way above its weight culturally. His group, The Jayhawks, would release a string of critically acclaimed and nationally beloved albums.

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One of Louris’s main gifts is his ability to contribute to the music of a wide array of artists, including Counting Crows, John Hiatt, Lucinda Williams, Roger McGuinn, The Wallflowers, The Black Crowes, Nickel Creek and a host of others. As a member of the Jayhawks he’s appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night With Conan O’Brien. He’s recorded for what sounds like an anthology of record labels: Twin/Tone, American Recordings, Rykodisc, Lost Highway, Thirty Tigers, Rounder, Sony and New West Records. Over the years he’s appeared at Farm Aid, Stagecoach, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky festival.

AllMusic calls him “one of the premiere songwriters of his generation.” The Bluegrass Situation, our host network, has written about him as a “musical Swiss Army knife.” Pitchfork has written that he and Mark Olson, his musical partner in the Jayhawks, “sang like they were born joined at the throat.”

It’s an immense honor to have Gary on the show. I got a chance to catch up with him a few weeks ago to hear about his musical journey so far.

Photo Credit: Steve Cohen

The Working Songwriter: Jay Buchanan

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Our guest this week on The Working Songwriter hails from a small mountain town in California, but his music has now made it across the world. Jay Buchanan got his start in the early 2000s with a solo project before joining ranks with a rock band and forming Rival Sons. Since 2008, that group has built a remarkable fan base and beloved discography.

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Rival Sons have shared stages with an astonishing list of artists including Black Sabbath, the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Queens of the Stone Age, Metallica, and Lenny Kravitz. They’ve appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Later… with Jools Holland, and France’s Le Grand Journal.

The band earned Grammy nominations in 2020 for Best Rock Album (Feral Roots) and Best Rock Performance (“Too Bad”). The Guardian called Buchanan “a revelation” and “a mesmerising presence throughout.” Revolver called him “an undeniable vocal force,” and Classic Rock praised his 2026 solo debut, Weapons of Beauty, as “a remarkable journey through soul music, country rock, southern gothic and gospel.” I got a chance to catch up with Jay a few weeks ago to hear about that solo album and about the rest of his musical journey so far.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

The Working Songwriter: Chicago Farmer

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Our guest this week on the Working Songwriter is Cody Diekhoff, better known as Chicago Farmer. He grew up in the small farming community of Delavan, Illinois, before moving to Chicago in 2003. Over the past two decades he has built a devoted following through relentless touring, first as a solo performer and more recently with this band, the Fieldnotes.

Along the way, he has shared stages with Robert Earl Keen, Todd Snider, Greg Brown, the Wood Brothers, Elizabeth Cook, Wayne Hancock, Greensky Bluegrass, Del McCoury, and Gene Ween.

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His album, Flyover Country, was recorded with members of the Band of Heathens and 2026’s Homeaid (released in March of this year) is his first full-length release in six years. Elmore Magazine says he has “the novelist’s gift of building a suspenseful story to a surprising conclusion.” While No Depression declared, “If the Midwest is looking for a voice, the search is over.” The Chicago Tribune praised him for “some of the better roots songwriting in Chicago today.”

Cody is a very, very old friend of mine. We were both coming up in the Chicago folk music scene 20 years ago. He’s one of my favorite modern artists, and he should have been on this podcast many years ago. I got the chance to catch up with him on the phone a few weeks ago to hear about his journey so far.

Photo courtesy of Chicago Farmer.

The Working Songwriter: Stephen Markley

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

This week on The Working Songwriter, we’re thrilled to step out of our normal comfort zone by welcoming one of the country’s most acclaimed young novelists. Originally from Mount Vernon, Ohio, author Stephen Markley now makes his home in Los Angeles. He attended Miami University (of Ohio) for his undergraduate degree before being accepted into the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

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Simon & Schuster published his debut novel, Ohio, in 2018. The book was widely praised for its unflinching portrait of post-9/11 Rust Belt America. Then, in 2023, he returned with the massively popular novel, The Deluge, a work of ficiton about climate change that The New York Times named as one of its notable books. The NYT Book Review also said that, “The Deluge shows the range of its author’s gifts: polyphonic narration, silken sentences and elaborate world-building.”

Of the same book none other than Stephen King said, “[It is] simply put a modern classic. If you read it you’ll never forget it.” He also named it as the favorite book he had read the year that he read it.

Markley also works as a screenwriter in LA as a member of the writers room for the Hulu comedy series Only Murders in the Building, which stars Martin Short, Steve Martin, and Selena Gomez.

What a thrill it is to welcome onto the show such a profoundly talented artist who falls outside our normal realm of expertise… I think there’s a lot for songwriters to learn on this cross-discipline episode of the podcast.

Photo Credit: Michael Amico

The Working Songwriter: Dale Watson

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Our guest this week was born in Birmingham, Alabama, but, just like Davy Crockett, got to Texas as soon as he could. Dale Watson began his musical career playing the clubs of Houston before decamping to Austin and becoming a fixture in the live music capital of the world. The music machine in Nashville never fully embraced Watson’s traditionalist combination of Western swing, rockabilly, and country, but he’s built a devoted cult following the world over on his own. It’s a style of music that he calls “Ameripolitan.”

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Watson has toured with all the greats: Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson. He’s appeared on The Late Show with David Lettermen, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and of course Austin City Limits. He’s performed at Stagecoach, Bristol Rhythm & Roots, and a host of other festivals.

He was a 2005 Austin Music Hall of Fame inductee and he was awarded the title of Texas State Musician in 2007. He founded the Ameripolitan Music Awards in 2014. The Austin Chronicle calls him their “local honky-tonk hero” and Saving Country Music says that “Dale Watson is all about keeping the honky-tonk traditions alive.”

I got a chance to catch up with Watson a few months ago to hear about his musical journey so far.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

The Working Songwriter: Joe Pernice

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Our guest on the Working Songwriter this week originally hails from Boston, Massachusetts, and now makes his home in Toronto. Joe Pernice got his musical start, though, in Northampton, Mass. At the time, it was a hot bed of indie music creativity. His band the Scud Mountain Boys built a loyal following in the 1990s with a string of critically acclaimed releases. He’s recorded for Sub Pop, One Little Indian, Team Love, and New West Records.

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Over the years Pernice has collaborated with a variety of blue-chip songwriters such as Aimee Mann, Neko Case, Norman Blake (of Teenage Fanclub), Jimmy Webb, Rodney Crowell, and Jim White. He’s also a man of many talents; his novel It Feels So Good When I Stop was published by Penguin Books in 2009. NPR calls him “a workhorse of a songwriter who delivers hard truths with the softest of whispers.” Brooklyn Vegan declared, “Few songwriters today imbue frustration and anguish into the sweetest of melodies as Joe Pernice.”

I got a chance to catch up with him a few months ago to hear about his musical journey so far.

Photo Credit: Colleen Nicholson